The present invention generally relates to connector arrangements and, more particularly to connectors for electrically connecting devices.
Generally, to connect two electrical devices to each other, various kinds of connectors may be used. Electrical device in this context is to be understood as encompassing any kind of device, for example mobile devices like mobile computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like, stationary devices like home computers, peripheral devices like hard disks, modems and also connecting cables used to transmit signals and the like to other devices. For example, to connect a desktop computer with a mobile device, a first electrical connector may be provided at the desktop computer, which is connected with a connector at one end of a cable, and a connector at the other end of the cable may be connected to a connector of the mobile device.
To facilitate connections between devices, some standardized connectors have been developed which are widely used, for example universal serial bus (USB) connectors or IEEE1394 connectors. Of these standardized connectors, different communication protocols with different data rates like USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 or IEEE1394a and IEEE1394b and/or different physical implementations of the connectors like mini USB, USB-A, USB-B and the like may be specified.
Such standardized connectors facilitate communication between devices since for example one and the same USB cable may be used for various different devices. On the other hand, while such standardized connectors are in many cases designed to fulfill the needs of a variety of applications, they may not be optimized for a specific application.
On the other hand, for many specific applications connectors individually designed for the respective purpose are used. Such connectors may in some cases provide better performance for the specific application, but require dedicated equipment, for example cables, which are only usable with the specific connector.
Therefore, a general need exists for improved connectors and connector arrangements.